The Vegas Strip in the Daylight Hours

After a wonderful evening exploring the Strip on foot, it was time to see it again for an afternoon. This time, the sun was out. And so was my hunger, after not getting much to eat for dinner!

So I walked to the monorail station after a wonderful night of sleep on the seventeenth floor. I still had about three hours left on my 24-hour monorail pass.

Best $12 I spent in Vegas, that’s for dang sure!

This is the Hilton attached to the Convention Center, and the home of the monorail station closest to my hotel. I only had to walk a few blocks to arrive here this morning.

Pretty, isn’t it?

Up, up and away to the monorail station! It wasn’t much busier than the day before, but El Capitan happened to hop on the same car as me to ride to the Strip today.

What a small world!

Since the monorail station was on an elevated platform, if gave me the height to take a picture of the Strip in the distance. Way too far to walk, right?

Soon I was exiting at my monorail stop to walk to lunch. I had found on a map the night before where my lunch destination would be today.

And it was going to be much more affordable than last night’s dinner at Serendipity. (And much better, too, but I didn’t know that yet!).

At first, I considered eating some tacos for lunch at Cabo Wabo. But their menu was the typical high Vegas prices, and I was ready to wander for a while until I found what I wanted.

This is just outside the Planet Hollywood entrance.

There are two entrances to the Miracle Mile Shops. Had I known that, I would have walked a few more feet and entered in the farther door. Going this way, however, I got a fun view of the interior of the casino, as well as lots and lots of stores.

All filled with people. There isn’t a recession on the Las Vegas Strip, apparently!

After taking the long way, I finally arrived at the Earl of Sandwich. It sounded like the perfect solution to calm my hunger, since I happen to like sandwiches quite a bit.

Just not Subway. Yuck.

Hi, Earl! You’re about to make me very, very happy!

Especially with a delicious side like red potato salad. I’m an Ideeho girl at heart, since my Dad grew up there. My Mom even lived there for a few years decades.

Spuds are just a part of me, and I’ve come to terms with that knowledge.

But this. Oh my. This.

A hot sandwich on crusty bread, filled with turkey, ham, and probably avocado. I can’t remember which sandwich I got. But I can remember that it tasted heavenly.

And it was nice for my wallet, too, since my entire meal was less than ten dollars. Now we’re talking!

Soon it was time to head back outside. I still had about an hour before my monorail pass expired, so I decided to walk the Strip again.

This bull is to pay tribute to the cowboys entering town this week for the professional bull riding championships. It’s probably up all the time, but I’m sure that the cowboys noticed and appreciated such love from Vegas.

And then they probably got wasted here. Since that is what visitors to this town seem to do for fun.

     

It was a little overcast, which made for a nice day to wander outside. Here is the front of Planet Hollywood, and across the street is the new Cosmopolitan.

The yellow building is Aria, I think. And lots of construction still taking place on some shopping buildings in front of it.

A distant view to the south. Can you see Mandalay Bay waaaaaaay down there?

And here are those fancy-pants stores that I walked past last night. What on earth would I do in a Prada store?!

I took a skyway to cross the Boulevard so that I could walk north on the west side. I did the other side last night, so I thought that it could be fun to see the buildings from a different vantage point.

Man, I live a life of excitement!

Hi, Planet Hollywood! Thanks for lunch. It was the best thing that I ate for my whole trip!

   

Hi, Bellagio and Eiffel Tower at Paris. You’ve been swell to me these past few days!

I can’t stop at just one picture of the Bellagio, since it’s so dang purdy.

And these tunnels underneath the driveway light up in bright blue at night. So neat!

Hello again, Bally’s. I saw Chewbacca last night in front of your property. In fact, lots of Star Wars people were wandering around in full costume. It made me wander if I didn’t get the memo.

The bright pink and orange signs are Serendipity, where my dinner was served last night. See what a great view I had all during my meal?

Oh, those Osmond's. I’ve never seen them in concert but have heard they’re pretty amazing.

And look at this! The Imperial Palace is completely gone! They are doing extensive renovations to this. It will be fun to see what it transforms into next time that I get to visit.

Hail, Caesar!

And Shania, apparently.

This is my sister-in-law’s favorite spot at the Strip, so this picture is just for her.

But now it’s time to head back to catch the train. I don’t want to spend another $12 because I missed my monorail by just a few minutes!

This will give me time to read for a few hours back in the hotel lobby until it’s time to meet for our flight home. Perfect!

Goodbye, Strip. You’ve been such a nice friend to me these past few days. And I didn’t lose a dime! It helps that I also didn’t gamble a dime, either.

It’s like they are blowing the train whistle for me!

Just kidding. That would be kind of creepy, actually.

Lots of construction going on behind the scenes. Maybe they are making more parking spots for the Strip? That would be nice, since it’s tough to find a good spot sometimes. I’m glad that I didn’t even have to mess with a car on this trip.

Just sneakers and monorails and airport shuttles for me, thank you very much.

It kind of looks like an ant farm, huh?

Goodbye, back of the Strip. You’re pretty nifty!

Since I had some time to kill, and I was safe with my monorail pass since I was already on the platform, I decided to ride to the “end of the line” near the MGM Grand to take a peek around.

Seven minutes later, I hopped on the same monorail and headed back towards my hotel.

Man, I’m so adventurous!

Soon I was near my hotel once again. Except that I decided to be even more adventurous by going to the end of the line in the opposite direction!

Somebody…stop me!

It was only one stop past my hotel, so no biggy. But it got me closer to this pretty thing. It’s the closest I’ve been to the Stratosphere yet.

This is the barn where all of the monorails spend the night. At least, the three hours a night that they get to rest. This is a town that doesn’t really sleep, remember. So I doubt they give any slack to their monorail system, either.

I’m not sure what happened to this poor little train. Did he run out of steam? Couldn’t quite make it to bed for the night? Or maybe he is dragging his feet as he preps to come on for the wild night shift?

You just never know with monorails.

But this was the main reason that I wanted to ride the monorail all the way to the end. I wanted to see this classic (though presently closed) casino. This was one of the grandest buildings back in the day when Vegas was first getting its party town name.

Remember the Rat Pack? They were here. All of the stars were here. And now it sits empty and vacant at the end of the monorail line. At least it had one visitor today…friendly wave from me!

From this last station, I walked back to my hotel. I read a book for a few hours before it was time to head to the airport for our quick night flight home.

And, since it’s only two pictures, I will end with the proof of our quick night flight home. It was such a fun few days!

Welcome to fabulous
Welcome to fabulous
Laaaaaaaaaaaaas Vegaaaaaaaaaaas
Give us your dreamers, your harlots and your sin
Laaaaaaaaaaaaas Veeeeeeeeeeegaaas
Didn't nobody tell you the house will always win?

- Brandon Flowers